Bicipital Tendinitis

[mean_dean]

Bicipital Tendinitis - Had a fall on the ice playing hockey recently, next day should/upper arm pain very bad. Went to my orthopedic doctor and he diagnosed it based on X-Rays and other physical tests. Scheduled for PT and a follow up. He gave me a lidocaine/steroid shot in the area, but it didn't seem to help. Go back to see him in a few weeks for follow up, if still hurting an MRI to see what might be going on.

Anyone every work through this type of injury?

It is going to impact my fishing as it is in the arm I use to cast.

[n2ratfishin]

My insurance would not cover a MRI until physical therapy did not work. I did three months with no good results. The MRI showed a complete rotator cuff tear along with tearing my bicep tendon. Almost back to normal 6 months post surgery. Hoping to get cleared to lift over my head and swim later this month. Three times a week at the therapist for five months along with all my home self therapy was tough but yielded results that left my shoulders better than I’ve recalled in years. That dang bicep tendon is tighter than a hat band sometimes LOL. Hope you get it figured out soon!

[SHM64]

I've suffered with it for four years, diagnosed as resulting from being 58 and active in sports, etc. and having arthritis. I also had steroid shots which didn't provide any relief. I have religiously tried therapy regimes, stretching, and the other related exercises and nothing has helped it. I ice it frequently (have an ice circulating machine from rotator cuff surgery on my other shoulder) which does provide short term relief. I've got another couple of years left in me playing 50+ baseball and my orthopedic says I will likely need surgery to repair/correct it. It will definitely impact your fishing, especially if you frequently throw heavy baits. I've found that I can still use that arm, but I don't cast over that shoulder and instead cast it over my other shoulder. It takes the pressure off but at the end of a long day it is miserable. When it is really bad, I can't flip/pitch with that arm as the weight of the rod/reel and motion is too much to deal with.

[Red Lund]

I had the condition after getting hurt doing pullups....it got so bad that I couldn't use a screwdriver and turning a door knob was excruciating.

I took a lot of time off and it never was getting better and was truly refractory so I ended up getting the PRP (platelet rich plasma) treatment which they administer to the bicep tendon under ultrasound guidance and it was a miracle cure...took a couple months but fully resolved and I've been back to high activity since over the last 12 years with no residual issues.

FWIW, I've also had unbelievable success with PRP on refractory patellar tendonitis in my right knee too.

Highly recommend.....only negative is that it's not covered by insurance, cost me about $800 each time

[mean_dean]

PT was unsuccessful, didn't do anything to alleviate the pain. MRI this afternoon, the tendon is torn and so is my rotator cuff. Surgery on June 15th to get it fixed. Doc said he would have me playing hockey and fishing in 6 months.

[Charles Prestridge]

I am 1-year post surgery, similar to what you describe. Torn rotator cuff and bicep muscle.

Ice therapy machine is a big help. I purchased one (a good unit) prior to surgery. Mine is big enough for frozen gallon milk jugs, or 2-liter bottles. For the 1st 3-weeks, if I was not rehabbing, I was using the ice machine.

The other big help for me was having the home-version for rope and pulley. They cost less than $20. 3 days after surgery started using rope/pulley at both on-site and at-home rehab. There are also many other home PT exercises you will be doing.

Everyone is different, but within 10-days, I had full range of motion using rope/pulley. Typically, 1st 5-6 weeks are all passive motion to allow tendon attachment to heal enough to not get pulled loose. This is where the rope/pulley helps.

Within 6 weeks, I had full motion of repaired shoulder, using active motion of that shoulder. At 5-weeks, I was down to minimal pain, except during the hard rehab sessions. Shaking the “bodyblade” those 1st few times made me glad I have a personal commitment not to use profanity. But again for me, I knew after 1-week, everything was going to go well, if I continued to do what I was supposed to.

I am thrilled at how well everything went.

[Menacer]

Had increasing pain in my shoulder/arm for the better part of 10 years until I couldn't lift my hand above my belly button and was in alot of pain. Ended up the long head tendon of my bicep popped out of the tuberosity and sawed through my subscapularis. Only fix was surgery. Surgeon said he couldn't be sure what caused it but said I had pretty bad tendonitis in the bicep which could be a cause. Also said no way was the tear a old injury wich also led him to think it was caused by the tendonitis. I was cleared to go fishing again in 4 months but both the surgeon and therapist did not think that was going to be possible and were originally estimating 6 months. I was back to 100 percent or as close to it as ever would be after about 1 year. Tendons take a long time to heal as they do not receive a good blood supply. Best advice I can give is follow the PT post op. No more no less. Don't push it but don't just go through the motions. There will be discomfort but listen to your body, it will tell you when you went to hard.